Australian Welfare Agency, Centrelink has implemented a voice biometrics system for their over the phone service for clients, according to an Australian IT article. The agency had been thinking about implementing a system for two years until both the maturation of their own systems and voice biometric products had gotten to a point where they were comfortable with the switch.

Telecommunications management firm Telstra has supplied the new system and following a successful trial with ten employees will be available to the public. Once fully implemented, customers will authenticate via counting to ten and answering a series of secret questions rather than using their client number and password.

Centrelink is expecting the system to not only better secure customer information and save them hassles of remembering their own identification numbers, but also save them money spent by customer service representatives authenticating customers manually. In addition to the voice biometric system, Centrelink is also in the process of implementing a contactless ID card system for their employees.